On my wilderness orientation for college we went hiking in New Hampshire. We were all camping on a platform under a tarp. In the middle of the night I awake to a girl screeching. I look up and there is a black bear head inside the tarp. I was on the opposite side of the tent, so I was okay, but it was right above this guy. Obviously, the girl yelling woke everyone up, and we were all staring at the bear. All of a sudden it grabs the guy’s sleeping bag and starts slowly pulling him toward the edge. Girl screams again. The guy, as was the case with most of us, was paralyzed with fear.

I don’t know if it was smart or not, but the leader took a flashlight out and shined it in the bear’s eyes. The bear definitely looked a little annoyed or confused by this and let go of the kid and scampered off. Eventually we all kind of calmed down and got a good laugh out of the whole thing and we desperately tried to find what attracted the bear. The moron had put toothpaste in the bottom of his sleeping bag (the rest of our stuff was in a bear bag) despite the fact that the leader had EXPLICITLY mentioned toothpaste as a bear treat when we were making the bag. I don’t know about anyone else, but I definitely did not sleep another wink that night.